Ahmad Faruqui

In prior columns, I addressed the issue of whether Pakistan won the war of 1965. When the discussion turns to the war of 1971, there is no doubt that Pakistan lost that war. However, many Pakistanis have absolved their military for the loss of East Pakistan in 1971, placing the blame instead on the squabbling […]

  Indubitably, the Indian invasion was not unprovoked; it was the direct consequence of the failed Operation: Gibraltar and the imminent threat posed by Op Grand Slam to Akhnur, the sole entry and the jugular of the valley known as the ‘Chicken’s Neck’. General Akhtar Hussain Malik almost achieved that herculean task. In his war […]

Based on an article written by Former Air Commodore Sajjad Hyder. Former Air Commodore Sajjad Hyder, “Straight Shooting on the 1965 War,” Dawn, September 6, 2016 (concluded) Prior to the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, President Ayub Khan had been advised by the Foreign Office that India would not react to the incursion by the Pakistan Army in […]

Many Pakistanis continue to believe that their national survival depends on their military. They feel that the military has saved Pakistan from certain destruction at the hands of India numerous times. They are confident that Pakistan defeated India in the war of 1965. They have even absolved the Pakistani military for the loss of East […]

In the Roman Republic, no general with a standing army was allowed to cross the Rubicon River that separated Gaul from Italy. That was viewed as posing an unacceptable threat to the civil polity of the state.But Julius Caesar held the republic in contempt, equating its politics with the hankering after power of rich, powerful […]